Guerrilla Vlogger: Sunday in the park with Deval.

During the Democratic Primary Debate last month Deval Patrick told Bob Oakes that he “will be called everything, but a child of God” before this thing is over.

Video A Child of God (1:38)

At the time I was hoping it was just a snappy line to wow the audience. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If you don’t know what’s going on up here then let me fill you in. Kerry Healey has taken the “Democrats are soft on crime meme” to a shocking new low. I guess she had to make it really good since Patrick is a former federal prosecutor and held the position of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice under Clinton. That’s the top job in the country.

Ya know, that kind of soft of crime.

But hey, you don’t want to hear from me when you’ve got Deval Patrick tape to watch.

If you really don’t have a lot of time to view all the video, try the remix.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change The Remix (9:50)

Otherwise, away we go…

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change Part 1 (8:16)

This clip includes a couple of members of the crowd shouting out supportive lines to Patrick as he begins his speech. It also starts with a couple of minutes of crowd tape. I like to throw some of that stuff into the mix for flay-vah.

We were all anticipating remarks that were vastly different than the “Check Back In” speech that Patrick has been stumping on all around the state. We weren’t disappointed. Patrick chose to go after Healey on her record as Lt. Governor under Mitt Romney. There’s a lot of ammo on that score.

Here’s the start of the remarks:

Are you ready for a change? Are you ready to work for it? Are you ready to demand it?

When we started this campaign nearly two years ago, a lot of people – maybe even some of you – were skeptical. No money, no connections, no clue – some thought. For 18 months I have been listening to the pundits and the wise guys say, “No, we can’t.”

But they underestimated you. They misjudged the hunger for change and fresh ideas. They missed just how ready we all were to hope for the best, as my Grandmother used to say, and to work for it. We said “yes, we can.”

Because we know we need a change.

Under the Romney-Healey administration:

• 140,000+ net jobs have left the state
• Massachusetts has declined in population
• We rank 42nd in job creation
• Housing and homelessness are up
• We rank 47th in the nation on spending for Public Higher Ed.
• Mandatory fees at colleges all over the state exceed the tuition for that school
• Parents now pay fees for their kids to do almost anything at school like ride the bus or play a sport.
• HC reform has been completely derailed by Romney-Healey leaving millions in the lurch.
• The Big Dig – oh the Big Dig. Breaking: Mitt Romney (R) Under Federal Investigation

And the response from the administration consists of blame-shifting and spin. Kerry Healey wants us to believe she had nothing to do with any of this. You would think she was no where near the administration on a whole host of issues, a list that grows by the day of subjects on which she disagreed with Mitt Romney.

The point is this: either Kerry Healey was there and was responsible for what’s wrong or she was there and had no influence. Either way we need a change.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change Part 2 (6:24)

In this clip, Patrick starts talking about the grassroots campaign that he chose to run very early on. This clip is a contrast piece where he offers an alternative to the Texas on the Cape YOYO, you’re on your own, economics and government policy that Healey and Romney have delivered to the state over the past few years.

I think this has been Patrick’s biggest strength in the campaign. I’m a newcomer to the whole Deval experience, but if you talk to the real grassroots in MA, they’ll tell you that he showed up, listened, engaged and then impressed them city by city and town by town all over the state.

He went out to the grassroots and he earned it the old-fashioned way. I think that retail politics can produce some of the best results in the game. Patrick is no exception.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change Part 3 (6:27)

The point is this we have run this campaign on practical ideas that make a difference for our common future. Ideas like these and others on housing on transportation on energy and the environment because at the grassroots, you know that we have to offer more than to replace bad leadership with ordinary leadership and more of the same old thing. We need creative leadership and vision.

I don’t pretend to have a corner on all the best ideas. No candidate does. In fact, every candidate in this race has a few good ideas including Kerry Healey. But nobody’s ideas are going anywhere if we don’t re-invent our politics and restore our sense of community. We have to learn again to see our stake in each other’s struggles and each other’s dreams as well as our own.

Hope for a better tomorrow and a willingness to work for it. That is the foundation of this campaign. That is why this campaign has become a movement for change.

Because this is not about strengthening partisan politics it’s about reviving citizenship.

What we have built we have built on substance and a positive message. On the future. That is a very powerful and hopeful thing. It turns out to be a very threatening thing too.

Then he starts in on the specifics to the refrain, “if that were my record I’d want to change the subject too.” It’s glorious.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change Part 4 (7:23)

This is the best clip in the bunch. There’s some real fire in the belly here. Patrick wants to talk honestly about crime. He even air quotes Healey’s supposed profession as a “criminologist.” Patrick doesn’t need to get a PhD in crime science to understand what people need here. He’s been there and done it on both sides of the aisle. Successfully.

Let’s talk about crime and let’s talk about crime honestly. I’m the only one in this r
ace that has ever actually sent anyone to prison. I’m not a ‘criminologist’ I was a federal prosecutor.

I’ve been in those courtrooms. I’ve made those charging decisions. I’ve had to evaluate evidence and test it in court. I’ve had to comfort victims. I’ve represented victims. Thanks to the newspaper’s you now know that my family and I have been victims of violent crime.

I’ve grown up in a neighborhood like the South Side of Chicago with crime all around us. I know what the impact is and how devastating it is to families and people in communities. I don’t need to be lectured to by anybody.

And I have done one other thing, I have also on occasion represented the unsavory defendant and you better be glad somebody stands up and does that.

Because that’s what puts the justice in our justice system.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change Part 5 (5:08)

No comment here folks, click the link and see a master at the top of his game.

Okay a few words, this was an unexpected and exhilarating wind-up. I think you can hear me saying, “Oh. My. God.” as he finishes up. The “just words” part is artful and elegant. He’s not another Dr. King or John Kennedy as he says. He’s his own man and based on this performance, he could give the greats a run for their money.

Please watch this clip if you have the time. It’ll put you in the right frame of mind for all the hard work we have ahead of us across the country in the next couple of weeks. We have to fight on every level and everywhere.

Related blog links:

Deval Patrick Rocks Boston Common by Frederick Clarkson this diary contains the full transcript. Thanks FC, that was a Godsend when writing this diary.

A testament to people power by idissent an event report from the rally.

Steve Garfield’s Video Blog has a couple clips from the rally. It’s much better quality than the YouTube stuff I can offer. Garfield has also posted a bunch of pictures of the rally at Flickr

The Sun is a Democrat! an event report from the rally.

The Kitchen Sink revisited includes a discussion about whether or not Patrick should go negative on Healey. Hint: hell yeah!

Healey’s Soft on Crime: the Evidence Mounts from the Deval Experience blog, a great local blog.

Recent media reports:

Patrick slams Healey at rally on common

A big week for Patrick

Patrick, Healey spar over report on kin

At rally, Patrick tries to turn Healey’s ads back at her

Globe Editorial: DNA truth-seeking

And this gem from Lawyer’s Weekly, sorry no link available. My local campaign coordinator sent it out this weekend. Thanks Ed!

Lawyers Weekly, October 16, 2006.

Editorial: Deval Patrick for governor

During the 34-year history of Lawyers Weekly, the paper has never endorsed a

candidate for elected office. This practice was borne out of the notion that

the political, or societal, issues that dominate races typically outweigh

issues that are of distinct interest to lawyers.

But the race for governor in Massachusetts in 2006 is suddenly very much

about what it means to be a lawyer.

On the one hand, we have Democratic nominee Deval Patrick, whose stated

policies on judicial independence and appointment of judges (among other

issues) reflect a genuine understanding of the legal system.

Conversely, Republican nominee Kerry Healey has launched a chilling assault

on the practice of law. Healey is running a television ad that takes Patrick to task for his 1985

representation of a defendant accused of murdering a police officer – an ad

that borders on the bizarre in its reasoning.

“While lawyers have a right to defend admitted cop killers, do we really

want one as our governor?” the ad asks.

Last week Healey added an ad that references Patrick’s one-time support of

convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer.

“What kind of person defends a brutal rapist?” the ad asks.

Just in case anyone’s keeping score here. The Supreme Court agreed with Patrick in the case of the man accused of murdering a police officer, convicted and sentenced to death in Florida. For the “brutal rapist?” Deval advocated for a DNA test, that’s all. Once the test came back identifying LaGuer as the assailant Patrick pulled the ripcord on his support. Check the Globe Editorial, link above, for today. Healey also supports post-conviction DNA testing.

Video Deval Patrick – Rally for Change The Crowd (8:05)

• Doggies for Deval
• Billionaires for Bush – The Boston Chapter featuring Ivanna Moore-Enmoore and Lee Vemhangen. I read the website because it’s good satire and I get a real kick out of their names. They’re totally guerrilla too.
• Fellow kossacks from Mass, including AnotherMassachusettsLiberal
• Mike and Kitty Dukakis featuring Pedro, no interview from the Duke – sorry.
• Newburyport Grassroots
• Yeson3forKids.org. I never know what to vote on some of these questions. The wording and ads seem to be designed to confuse, here’s the skinny on ballot question 3.

The story on Patrick’s sister’s sexual assault printed in The Boston Herald, owned by FOX NewsCorp, on Friday October 13, 2006 has “prompted former governor Michael Dukakis to call this, appropriately, the dirtiest campaign he had ever seen, one far surpassing his own experience.” —source.

You can check DevalTV for Patrick’s statement on the scandalous, sensational and utterly superfluous story that the Herald printed. Brace yourselves, the family had to sit the kids to tell them Thursday Night.

Video: On Kerry Healey and the Politics of Fear.

Volunteer if you possibly can. The Deval website has some great tools, all the contact info you could ever want to get started in these crucial final weeks of the campaign is here. Every city and town is listed, click and get started.

No time? Then send them some bucks if you are so inclined. Healey’s war chest will not be exhausted. There isn’t enough airtime in the state to do that, she’s got millions and she’s spending every dime furthering the most disgusting ad campaign that has come down the pike in years.

Upcoming for Deval:

Bill Clinton will be in tonight to raise some bucks. Obama is coming in on Friday and the debate is being held on Thursday night. As far as I know you can stream it on the web at WBUR. org. I don’t think it’s going to be on TV, typical. Anyone sure about this?

If you’re new to Deval then you might want to take a gander at a couple of previous vlogs that I did on him:

• Guerrilla Vlogger: Mass. Heads to the Polls – Deval and Debate Round-up
• Guerrilla Vlogger: Meet Deval Patrick

See you out there…